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1 – 10 of 610A historical analysis of Sikhism demonstrates that Sikh thinking on ethical management has long predated academic thinking and research pertaining to this subject. It also…
Abstract
A historical analysis of Sikhism demonstrates that Sikh thinking on ethical management has long predated academic thinking and research pertaining to this subject. It also demonstrates the relationship between good management and peace. Sikhism with its relatively secular orientation promoted both profits by working and the peaceful society that was necessary to obtain these. Hence the concept of ‘Sikh Peace management’ became a reality. Its foundation is the idea that working and management for the common good acts as a spiritual experience and that it interacts with and reinforces a peaceful environment. Despite its similarities with Calvin’s work ethics Sikhism did not lead to religious warfare like in 16th and 17th century Europe. It did result however in ‘defensive’ characteristics, which, just like work, became part of a new spirituality.
Raj Singh Badhesha, James M. Schmidtke, Anne Cummings and Scott D. Moore
This paper aims to examine the effects of watching a video providing knowledge about either a Sikh student or an older student on participants' knowledge about each particular…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the effects of watching a video providing knowledge about either a Sikh student or an older student on participants' knowledge about each particular group, their attitudes towards that group.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used a pre‐post experimental design and examined the effects of diversity awareness training using a short web‐based video.
Findings
Results indicated that watching a Sikh video significantly increased knowledge of Sikhs and had a marginally significant effect on improving attitudes toward that target group. Additionally, White participants experienced a greater positive attitude change towards Sikhs than non‐White participants. There were no significant effects on knowledge or attitude change for older individuals. However, watching either video was associated with a decline in participants' multiculturalism attitudes.
Research limitations/implications
The results suggest that further work is needed on the effects of specifically focused diversity training as well as more general multicultural training. The study only examined short‐term change in participants' knowledge and attitudes: more research is needed to examine the long‐term effects of diversity training.
Practical implications
The results indicate that organizations should perform some type of need assessment prior to conducting diversity training because narrowly focused diversity training is not likely to have generalized effects.
Originality/value
The paper should interest academics and practitioners since there is very little research that has examined how diversity training works and whether it is effective.
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In Metro Vancouver, Vaisakhi celebrations are organized by local Sikh gurdwaras to mark the Punjabi harvest season and the anniversary of the Sikh Khalsa, which was formed in…
Abstract
Purpose
In Metro Vancouver, Vaisakhi celebrations are organized by local Sikh gurdwaras to mark the Punjabi harvest season and the anniversary of the Sikh Khalsa, which was formed in 1699. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how Vaisakhi celebrations have become mechanisms for state institutions to refigure and extend their racial authority over Sikh places and populations through their coordinated appearances at these public events. These appearances are analyzed to reveal how contemporary racial states are characterized by complex conditions of visibility and public identification that obscure and foreclose the racial conditions of their authority.
Design/methodology/approach
The data analyzed for this paper were generated through observational fieldwork at Vaisakhi celebrations and extensive archival and media research on the changing racial governance of Sikh and South Asian populations.
Findings
The results show that, in Metro Vancouver, racial modes of governance have created “post-racial” relations between the state’s public visages of diversity and accessibility and its expanded legal regulation of the social and political places of local Sikh populations.
Originality/value
The concept of political appearances is developed to explain how contemporary racial states reproduce and augment their authority through discursive practices of public engagement with minority populations as well as the specific aesthetic conditions of these engagements. The paper also offers important cautions against state practices that expand the presence of law enforcement within marginalized communities by showing how this enhanced visibility can engender forms of racialization.
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Sean Colbert-Lewis and Drinda E. Benge
The increase of Islamophobia-inspired hate crimes toward Sikh Americans led the Sikh Coalition of America and the National Council for the Social Studies to request social studies…
Abstract
Purpose
The increase of Islamophobia-inspired hate crimes toward Sikh Americans led the Sikh Coalition of America and the National Council for the Social Studies to request social studies educators to conduct a content analysis on the presentation of Sikhism in social studies textbooks. The Sikh Coalition hopes to use the findings of such research to encourage more appropriate inclusion about the religion in textbooks by the leading publishing companies and as a legitimate social studies subject of instruction in the state standards for all 50 states. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
The incorporation of critical pedagogy, as a tool of critical multiculturalism, serves as the theoretical design of this study. Content analysis serves as the method of research for this study. The authors also employed an online survey to determine the scope of religious literacy of the pre-service teachers with regard to Sikhism before the conducting of content analysis of social studies textbooks for the presentation of Sikhism.
Findings
The current presentation of Sikhism in social studies textbooks has the potential to help fuel the Islamophobia that Sikh Americans now face. The authors found that the pre-service teachers possess little religious literacy regarding Sikhism. Furthermore, from the content analyses, the authors found that a total of 21 out of the sample of 32 textbooks (5 elementary, 11 middle grades and 16 high school) mention Sikhism. Eight textbooks include a mention of the origins of Sikhism. Nine textbooks misidentify the religion as a blending of Hinduism and Islam. Nine textbooks mention the religion in relation to the assassination of Indira Gandhi.
Research limitations/implications
The originality of this research led the authors to find that the very limited and inaccurate information we found present in the most-used textbooks for elementary, middle grades and high school social studies made the employing of inferential statistics like correlation difficult. Also, the authors found from the literature that research addressing Islamophobia in the classroom has centered on the role of licensed teachers only. The research gives a model to how pre-service teachers may address Islamophobia in the classroom and also gain religious literacy regarding Sikhism.
Practical implications
The rise of Islamophobia-inspired violence toward students of South Asian descent has led to the call to address this matter. The research introduces a method to how social studies education professors may help engage their pre-service teachers in proactively addressing Islamophobia. Social studies professors have a responsibility to help promote social justice through critical pedagogy that explores the religious literacy of their pre-service teachers beyond Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism.
Social implications
The Sikh Coalition, by telephone, has formally acknowledged to the authors that the textbook research has been the most extensive they have received since making their joint request with the National Council for the Social Studies. They have used the research to successfully convince the state education boards of Texas and recently Tennessee to adopt the inclusion of Sikhism in social studies content. More Americans, at a young age, need to learn about Sikh culture, so they are less likely to develop prejudicial ideas about Sikh Americans and commit violent acts of religious-based discrimination.
Originality/value
The research is extremely rare. To date, no one else in the country has conducted research on the presentation of Sikhism in textbooks to the extent that the authors have. The authors hope that the research will encourage more dialogue and further research. The authors hope that the research will help prevent further acts of religious-based violence toward followers of the world’s sixth largest religion.
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Karan Jutlla and Neil Moreland
While personalisation and service choice remains a central plank of the Labour Government's policies in health and social care, there is a growing evidence base confirming that…
Abstract
While personalisation and service choice remains a central plank of the Labour Government's policies in health and social care, there is a growing evidence base confirming that ethnic minority groups, are disadvantaged as service users in the UK. Building on some baseline data collected in 2000 and 2003/04, our recent research (Jutlla & Moreland, 2007) has reaffirmed the difficulties that Asian carers have in accessing services when caring for a relative with dementia.While such access data is important, we wish to move beyond the demographic aspects to consider the existential realities (the ontology) of the lives and cultures of those in minority ethnic groups. This paper consequently discusses the diversity and complexity of migration patterns among the Sikh community living in Wolverhampton. The paper conceptualises some of the ways in which different migration experiences and the realities of daily life influence the perceptions, experiences and patterns of care among migrant Sikh carers in Wolverhampton caring for an older person with dementia. The paper thus explores the thesis that the Sikh community is not a homogeneous group; and that the diversity and differences within the Sikh community can have important implications for care. Taking a biographical narrative approach to fieldwork, the relevant factors to be considered include: the carer's country of origin; their migration route and reasons for migration; their age at migration and the cultural experiences of the carers and their communities both in the UK and India.
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Gaurav Tripathi, Himanshu Choudhary and Madhu Agrawal
The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that could contribute towards the enhancement of the tourist experience at the Golden Temple site in Amritsar. The paper also…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that could contribute towards the enhancement of the tourist experience at the Golden Temple site in Amritsar. The paper also seeks to explore if there is any difference in the above mentioned factors based on the religion and the nationality of the respondents.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses an exploratory research design. Data were collected using structured questionnaires with open‐ended and close‐ended questions administered to the various tourist groups visiting the Golden Temple.
Findings
Significant differences between the factors contributing to the enhancement of the experience of the various tourist groups are expected.
Practical implications
The research findings will help the tourism industry to identify the factors that are important for various groups of tourists. This will help to improve the customer experience and thereby attract more tourists.
Originality/value
The study will add to better understanding of the factors contributing to enhancement of the tourist experience at religious sites.
The Golden Temple is the holiest shrine in Sikhism, the dominant religion in Punjab. Sikh separatist insurgency was a substantial problem for India in the 1980s and early 1990s…
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DOI: 10.1108/OXAN-DB279793
ISSN: 2633-304X
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Kuljit Heer, Michael Larkin, Ivan Burchess and John Rose
This study aims to explore the cultural context of care‐giving amongst South Asian communities caring for a child with intellectual disabilities in the United Kingdom.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the cultural context of care‐giving amongst South Asian communities caring for a child with intellectual disabilities in the United Kingdom.
Design/methodology/approach
In the context of the United Kingdom's Children's Intellectual Disability Services, the study set out to develop a culturally sensitive account of Sikh and Muslim parents' experiences of caring for a child with intellectual disabilities. Focus groups were conducted with parents from Sikh and Muslim support groups who were all accessing intellectual disability services for their children. Transcripts were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis, a qualitative technique.
Findings
Three master themes emerged from the analysis which were: Making sense of the disability; Feeling let down by services and Looking to the future. These themes reinforce findings from previous research particularly in relation to difficulties when making sense of the disabilities and difficult interactions with services.
Practical implications
The study makes recommendations for service delivery to ethnic minority groups including being aware of intra‐group variations in the interpretations and responses of South Asian parents.
Originality/value
Ultimately, the study makes recommendations for developing culturally sensitive support and interventions for ethnic minority groups which is important given the increase in multi‐ethnic populations in the UK.
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CANADA: Sikh accusation will hurt Delhi-Ottawa ties